An Interview with Said The Whale and Free Tickets!

Vancouver-based band, Said The Whale, is making the cross country trip to Montreal to play Club Lambi on September 13th with Rah Rah and Sarah Lowes. They’re making lots of stops in between, which is something the Juno award winners have become known for ever since they started playing their way across Canada in 2007. Since forming the band, singer and songwriters Tyler Bancroft and Ben Worcester have been open about their goals, struggles and triumphs as they navigate the Canadian music scene.

They started by filling out the folksy sound of Said the Whale with bassist Peter Carruthers, drummer Spencer Schoening, and keyboardist Jaycelyn Brown and began touring Canada and collecting fans along the way. Their music evolved into upbeat indie pop with harmonized vocals resulting in a sound similar to The New Pornographers and the Decemberists. When they decided they were ready to take their music to America, a film crew followed them there documenting their entertaining experiences in a film called “Winning America”. During their attempt to break into the American music market, the band is seen replacing stolen equipment and sleeping on the floor in true indie fashion. In their early stages, most bands suffer through their own set of disappointments and mishaps, but rarely do they let everyone see all of the effort that went into the polished finished product. That’s the charm of Said The Whale.

It’s also admirable that the experience didn’t dampen their spirits in the least. Over the phone, Spencer Schoening said they can’t wait to get back on the road.

“We’re dying to go back to the East Coast and the United States…we were just in the UK for the first time, actually I’m the only one who had been there before, but we all loved that.” The band was there for two festivals and have already found ways to make the most of the madness.

“Festivals are crazy. You run around like a chicken with its head cut off, but if you’re lucky, you get to discover new bands. You almost forget why you’re there.” It seems that being in a band is a great way to discover other bands, whether they bump into them at festivals or listen to them on a tourbus.

“I’m usually in shot gun so I choose the music and it can be all over the place. We like to sit through full albums though and get to know bands like Fruit Bats, Sublime, Dan Mangan, Cee Lo, Bob Dylan… anything, really.”

It’s clear that one of their favourite discoveries is still the first band they played a show with, Hollerado.
After winning the Juno award for New Group of the Year over Hollerado, Said The Whale announced that they’d be sharing the award with their friends.

With a Juno, a film, international festivals and now an EP on the way that Spencer describes as a “mini roller coaster”, 2011 is shaping up to be a pretty exciting year for Said The Whale. The EP is set to be released this fall and has four new songs, which Spencer explains are more experimental.

“Tyler and Ben co-wrote the songs, which are reflections of things they care about very much and they were really excited to see how the rest of the band interpreted them. It’s hard to describe them…I may be too close to the songs at this point.”

Laughing, Spencer adds, “Actually it’s a hip hop record.”

To get tickets to the show go to IndieMontreal’s website or enter our contest for a chance to win free tickets. To enter simply “Like” us on Facebook, Tweet this article, or leave a comment below (with your email address). See you at the show!